Court adds to grief for widow

AN al­leged Christ­mas hit and run drink-driver is back on the roads af­ter a judge granted him a lim­ited li­cence.

Mean­while, Ab­dul Ra­heem Fa­had Syed’s griev­ing widow, Nishat Abedi, fears de­por­ta­tion as she strug­gles to find work to sup­port her 17-month-old son a year on from her hus­band’s death in the ac­ci­dent.

‘‘Me and my son are strug­gling (and) that per­son is just walk­ing around,’’ she said.

‘‘The past few months, I’ve been de­pressed but be­cause of my son I have to be strong and think of the fu­ture.’’

Es­fe­hani is ac­cus­ing of flee­ing the scene while al­legedly nearly four times over the le­gal breath al­co­hol limit.

The 20-year-old faces a High Court trial next year for driv­ing with ex­cess breath al­co­hol caus­ing death, driv­ing with ex­cess breath al­co­hol caus­ing in­jury and fail­ing to stop and as­cer­tain in­jury.

The morn­ing of his death Syed was work­ing long hours to sup­port Abedi and then in­fant son Ab­dul.

A year on, Abedi has moved out of the cou­ple’s mar­i­tal home be­cause of the mem­o­ries. St on

Although a Givealit­tle page raised more than $80,000 for the fam­ily, Abedi said she has no fam­ily help and can’t drive, and has been upset with the lengthy court de­lays.

In Oc­to­ber po­lice in­formed her in an email that Es­fe­hani had been granted a lim­ited li­cence while on bail. He is al­lowed to drive be­tween 7am and 7pm.

Lim­ited li­cences can be granted by the court if the ap­pli­cant can show that not be­ing able to drive would cause ex­treme or un­due hard­ship.

Abedi is an­gry: ‘‘I know it’s not right but it’s hap­pen­ing.’’ She has since seen the footage of the ac­ci­dent: ‘‘It was hor­ri­ble. When I saw that, I was speech­less over what my hus­band had gone through.’’

‘‘It’s re­ally sad when I look at my son, I feel sad for him. He was only 5 months old,’’ Abedi said.

‘‘What am I go­ing to tell him when he is an adult?’’

Abedi’s fears of de­por­ta­tion are on­go­ing. The cou­ple moved to New Zealand not long af­ter they mar­ried and although she was granted a two-year work visa, she’s found it dif­fi­cult to find and keep work.